[ENHANCEMENT] Add an automated way to populate the website with fake data

[SethCram]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

• Yes, the website looks empty and some aspects can't be tested without additional posts

Describe the solution you'd like

• Add an automated way to populate the website with fake data

Additional context

• could possibly use FakerJS
• shouldn't be done until more model architecture is finalized

Development

• research FakerJS and other possible solutions

  • decided to use FakerJS and build a separate script for fake data injection

• get post image to stop changing every refresh and be different

  • tried generated a random image each time
    • but now none of the links work
    • had to pass in dimensions and now it works

• fix categories not being linked to posts properly

  • had to map each chosen category to a name for insertion

• "Fake" category shouldn't be injected into DB since only devs should be able to use it

• Votes should also be injectable into the system or posts should be created with a random reputation score

  • votes could be linked to fake users so they already have basis w/ logged into
    • but would be more difficult to test what would happen at different reputation scores
    • would needa create an insane amt of votes + ensure each one's properly contributed to an appropriate post if a certain score needs reaching for testing
    • but creating votes would allow for testing if user rep increases if they contribute enough votes
    • also, all user votes should be shown somewhere
    • so should prolly do a combination of random rep score along with specified number of votes

• user linked votes aren't deleted with them

  • bc delete votes w/ user if deleted, but only during the API call
  • needa do in node script
  • after [ENHANCEMENT] Implement ways to alter post/user reputation score #11 change from vote authorId to username, simple deletion call

• create a specified number of votes based on if option

  • to properly model system, should model each vote originating from a user
  • so need as many users as upper bounds of reputation desired by a post
    • which should go all to a little over the highest badge
    • author can't vote on their own post so shouldn't be exact
      • can manufacture more users explicitly to create the votes and not have them author any posts
    • would require
  • tried creating enough votes to put each post into a different badge range
    • realized everytime create a vote, post rep doesnt automatically increase
    • only increased bc of call api does
    • same for why badge updated
  • so could just straightup create new votes with a new user for each
    • wouldn't needa try to get votes allocated properly at all

• add badges to posts

  • have to rando alloc post rep score
  • then test to see where within badges bounds falls
    • can do same way did in API using sorted list + insertion index

• add badges to users

  • bu for user badges and bp for post badges?
  • could just pass a "-b" to indicate want there to be badges on everything that can have them
    • no reason to have a limited number of badges i suppose
    • or to just give posts badges and not users
  • add badges by default now, not dependent on option

• randomize some post scores

• randomize some user scores based on if option

• determine why all users and votes not always deleted + fix

  • 1 user and their votes survived it last time
  • happens bc not all users are guaranteed authors of a fake post
    • so they aren't deleted at deletion time
    • happens by random chance
    • could assign each user a random post, then in subsequent posts choose the author randomly
      • would require posts >= users

• fake publish date of posts

  • adding a "createAt" date to the fake post worked perfectly!

• allow for entering of options in any order for insertion

  • installed minimalist-lite package instead of using a for-loop
    • parsed cmd line args into a dict for position independent option entering

• fake post comments

  • structured in the same way as votes
    • since wanted each post to contain comments under it given by each user
  • rolled a random every comment creation to see if a reply to any previous comments would be created
    • rolled another random to decide the comment to be replied to
    • then added the new replied to comment to the root comment's replies
      • in API, only root comment has replies arr added to tho
      • so I had to change it to do the same
  • replyId not being set for some reason
    • or replies array
    • because _id field not init'd till posted to db
    • so need create fake comments, post to db, then create fake replied from those
      • then gonna have to update originally posted comments too since replies field changed
      • due to the complexity of this, just gonna post og comments, create replies, delete og's, then post all of them
      • did this and worked but had to compare object id's in special way
  • haven't been able to verify whether replies to other replies are being faked occasionally
    • seems like they aren't tho

• make sure replies to other replies are being created

  • everytime not replying to root comment directly, reply not added to root comment replies
    • bc root comment can't be found
    • bc new reply comment not having its replyId set properly
      • should possibly set it as a string??
      • not the problem
  • since reply comment not posted to database yet, doesn't have _id field
    • so, would have to post og comments, post reply comment, then post reply to reply comments
    • shouldn't require any comment deletion
      • wrong since still adding replies to already posted comments
      • so could once again try updating since now only picking comment to reply to from explicit pool
      • could update same way deleting rn i think
    • could also reuse same method for both reply comment creation

• create realistic fake comment dating

  • bounded it between time of post creation
  • should bound between comment replying to if there is one
    • unfortunately, replies ordered by when they were added in display
    • so this way of adding dates works but doesn't display well

• delete fake comments

  • delete comments author'd by fake usernames

• speed up updating of root comments

  • did so thru performing a "Bulk Write"
  • could've allegedly used aggregation pipeline but couldn't get working
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56752249/mongodb-how-to-update-array-of-objects-with-id-and-updated-values
    • bulk write example
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63779855/mongoose-update-many-from-an-array-of-ids?noredirect=1&lq=1

• only add up to 2 cats per post

  • since users also assigned this restriction
  • 3rd will be the "Fake" cat
  • only allowed for constant number of cats to be chosen
  • so sliced out first two cats before randomly picking one or both

• determine why faked images suddenly won't render

  • w/ tried to nav to src url, asked for login
  • happened after fake posts were on website for a day or two
  • problem resolved itself

• delete all comments replying to comments author'd by fake usernames

  • otherwise they'll just sit in DB without being displayed

• populate post descriptions with faked html for better visualization

• figure out why images take so long to load

  • likely due to images being retrieved from HTTP request
  • for test data atleast

• figure out + fix how urls generated for social media links are dead

  • couldn't figure it out
  • tried passing a suggested format but it didnt work
  • could instead use image urls
    • these dont go anywhere so that failed too

• figure out why test data images occasionally change + fix them

  • tried using diff functs for generating the pictures
    • food images dont seem to be changing
    • false! they changed eventually
    • so all types of pics eventually change if generated by faker??
      • could potentially download post pics into FS to get them to not change
      • would need to figure out how to download image from url of image in automated fashion
      • then place the images in the proper place + get/gives their names

[SethCram]

fake post comments